Play the Damn Card
by Scarabbug
Summary: …We’re not getting any younger, you know. Two opponents regard each other as they have a million times before. Only this time the outcome is going to be different. Seto vs. Yugi in the last Duel of their lives. Futurefic. Character deaths. Completed.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: Summary taken from the title of an Lj-community, _playthedamncard_. YuGiOh and all related characters are copyrighted to Kazuki Takahashi as of 1996 and are not my own. **

**So. This turned out kind of… long. Thus, I think you should think of it as yet another badly chaptered story, or as a series of one shots working towards a final point. Some bits flow a lot better than others. For now, here's "part one" of the future.

* * *

**

Play the Damn Card. 

"**_I guess we all do have something in common…"_**

- Robin Williams, "_Hook_".

The fight has always been the same except that for over a decade or so, they haven't really bothered with arenas or staging or setting up huge, over developed tournaments.

The thrill had gone out of that once Duel Disks started becoming usable in a home environment and everyone started duelling in their own living rooms instead of taking their duel disks out on the streets. This whole country was getting so damn _insular_ these days.

'I summon the _Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon_ to the field by activating my _Return from the Different Dimension_…'

'I knew you were going to do that.'

Seto stopped, looking only vaguely irritated as he turned the slightly-dog eared card over. He was starting to regret having left it inside that glass case in the academy for such a long time, but the dog eared edges remained the same. He used to change them regularly, whenever one began to look slightly less than newly cut. Not anymore, though. 'Sure, Mutou. Just keep telling yourself that. Maybe one day you'll believe it.'

Yugi rubbed his eyes. Kaiba had never used to consider it, but the text they put on the Duel Cards was really _ridiculously_ small. 'Kaiba, you _always_ play the Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon when you activate Return from The Different Dimension. You've been playing Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon by activating Return from the Different Dimension for the last _ten years_; it's already a standard move for the kids in the _academy_.'

They didn't make the Blue Eyes the way they used to, anyway. Not since they brought it back into production. Plus the design has changed twice in the last twenty years and now the older version won't even work on the new edition duel disks. He honestly wished Pegasus would quit messing with his own classics, already.

'Well if it's such a standard, why did it catch you out?'

'Well I never said it wasn't a _good_ move.'

'Glad you think so. Do you have anything up your sleeves to _counter_ that particular move?'

'Hm. No, right now.'

Kaiba's eyes narrowed in on him. 'You're bluffing.'

'Perhaps I am, but then again, Kaiba, you should know.'

'Just play your cards already. Let's get your pain over and done with as quickly as possible.'

'I don't think it works that way. I've been living with the pain for the last ten years. That's what you get for running around the world duelling and making monumental discoveries concerning ancient Egypt.'

'That wasn't the kind of pain I was referring too.'

'I know, but I think my answer's the same, either way. I end my turn.'

* * *

'_What do you mean, _you end your turn_?'_

_Kaiba kept his voice firm and steady but internally he was all but exploding. Yugi must have been getting used to this, or something, however, because the expression on his face hadn't changed and his hand still lay where it had fallen, placed firmly atop his deck. All around them, viewers were stirring and trembling and whispering beneath their breaths. _

'_I mean I'm surrendering,' Yugi said, glancing suggestively in the direction of his hand, as if the words alone weren't clear enough. _

'_Bullshit. I'm on a hundred life points, for god's sakes, finish this!'_

'_Like I said, I am finishing it, Kaiba,' Yugi said, softly, staring at him as if that fact were totally obvious. 'Look. I'm surrendering the duel. That usually means its over, doesn't it?' _

_Kaiba was fairly sure he didn't appreciate Yugi's new found ability to use sarcasm. In fact, he wished it would go back to the tomb with the pharaoh who had planted it. _

'_Don't you _dare_ patronize me in this way, Yugi. If we're going to duel then we duel to the finish.'_

'_It is the finish. One more move won't make a difference and I'm not trying to patronize you,' Yugi said. _

_Kaiba's grip tightened on the cards in his hand. He didn't notice how tight they were becoming until he saw them bleeding. Mokuba was watching from the side of the arena, face almost as white as Kaiba's face. 'You're manipulating circumstances, for crying out loud!'_

'_I'm not trying to do _that_ either, I just…' Yugi pulled his deck up into his hands. '…I don't want this anymore. I don't want a title that… that only means anything to _you_, Kaiba. I don't want to spend the rest of my life fighting you for it. That's not me. That's not my life and it's not the life I _want_. Please, Kaiba. Don't make me.' _

_He waited, for a second, allowing that phrase to sink in. 'Does this _look_ like it's all for my entertainment, Mutou? There's a crowd watching here, and you're just going to let them down by _walking off_?' _

_Yugi turned around on the platform and the crowd began seething once again, their movement a constant hum in –Kaiba imagines, because surely it can't be _his_ alone– both their brains. 'They're not _interested_ in titles, Kaiba. You know that. It's just the politics of the playground, really._ "Can my hero beat your hero?"_ No offence intended at all, everyone,' Yugi added, glancing upwards into the crowd. Most of them hadn't seemed to hear him. However, they were all too busy whispering amongst themselves how this was just like the fight between two other famous duellists earlier in the year, only better. Yugi looked, quite frankly, tired of it all. _

_Down on the right hand side of the platform, Bakura Ryou was shuffling his feel while Tristan picked at the cuff of his shift. Both were smiling at Yugi in a way that was almost sad, in comparison to their usual vibrant cheering. It seemed a little different, without Wheeler and Téa. The kind of difference that Kaiba wouldn't even have noticed if they'd actually been present and not off doing something else in some other corner of the country. Kaiba hadn't bothered to find out what, exactly. Why should he bother?_

'_What'll you do afterwards, anyway?' Yugi asked while looking back up at him. 'Will you just… take it as that and let it be, Kaiba? If I keep going and… and win against you again, right here right now, will this be the last tournament you stage? The last battle we ever fight?' Yugi gazed faintly at Kaiba's stunned face. 'I wanted to ask you,' he said, 'before we came out here… but I didn't. I thought it sounded silly at the time, but I guess now it doesn't matter, so I will… I wanted to ask you: when does all this really _end_ anyway, Kaiba?' Yugi picked at the edges of the two cards in his hand. Seto wondered what they were hiding. He wondered what strategy could still be necessary, even while Yugi had him hovering in limbo on one hundred life points and…_

_And why the hell wouldn't he play a single damn card? _

'…_This battle won't ever be over, Yugi.' _Not until the day I win it.

_Yugi smiled again, reaching out to carefully gather the cards from his side of the field. The dark Magician Girl shimmers out of existence like a holographic ghost. Then he descended quickly from the platform and starting walking over to join his two friends. _

_The look on his face… Kaiba had seen it once before, about five years ago. The look he saw when Yugi won a duel and killed a Pharaoh. _

'_I know it won't, Kaiba. Or at least, it won't ever end if we keep on doing it this way.' _

_And that was where he left Kaiba standing, enraged and bewildered, in the middle of a crowd of watching duellists who had come to see a battle of champions, which had finally ended in surrender.

* * *

_

'You honestly think I'm going to fall for that, don't you?'

Kaiba pointed at the face down card located right in the middle of Yugi's side of the tabletop arena. Yugi didn't answer but really, the silence was answer enough. 'You do, don't you? You think I don't know you well enough to know that is definitely _not_ a trap card.'

'It isn't?' Yugi asked innocently.

'Don't play game's Mutou.'

'But Kaiba, this _is_ a ga—'

'Yugi…' Kaiba interrupted. 'It's _not_ a trap card. I _know_ it's not a trap card and this being you, Yugi, there is no way in hell I could ever have been fooled into thinking it was a trap card.'

You're quiet certain about that, Kaiba?' Yugi asked, in a voice that sounded far too much like an older, ancient version of Yugi's personality for comfort.

Kaiba snorted. 'Of course not. I'm just making a rather astute educated guess.'

'It's a good guess, really.'

'I thought it would be,' Kaiba smirked a little drawing from his deck and preparing to beat the definitely-not-a-trap-card into oblivion.

'…I won't mention that new twitch which is suggesting otherwise, then,' Yugi piped.

'…What?!'

* * *

_Seto Kaiba had never known what to think about Bakura Ryou. _

_But then again, nor had he ever particularly _cared _about him, either. The boy should have been of no more importance to him now than he had been as a rival –a twisted, insane, quite possibly homicidal rival but still nothing much special as far as Duellists went– back in Battle City. How they had both ended up sitting on the walkway above the beach together that evening was something Seto had no interest in fathoming. _

_Though when he thought about it, Seto _could_ vaguely consider the idea that the boy had been following him. Perhaps he should have called security. _

_And then –Gods forbid– Bakura had sat himself down far-too-carefully on the bench besides him. Knees together, hands resting atop of one another, and asked if he might join him. With that in mind, there was probably no getting rid of him. Seto sighed impatiently and let it be for a good few minutes while both of them sat and watched the ocean churning in a gentle breeze. _

'_You could always tell me what happened, if you're just so desperate to get it off your chest.' _

_When Bakura spoke it was as nervously as always, picking at the cotton of his shirt in a blindingly obvious attempt at faking nonchalance. 'Oh. I… well, no. Nothing happened.' _

'_Of course it didn't,' Kaiba muttered. Whether something _did_ happen or didn't wasn't really his concern but he did feel slightly annoyed that the boy should decide to interrupt his scheduled walking hour if it really was just for "_nothing_". 'You ran away before you had a chance to find out, didn't you?' _

_Bakura winced and Kaiba knew that he was right. The boy was remarkably easy to read, these days. Not like back in Battle City where you had no idea what the hell he was going to do next. 'Who was it you let down this time, then?' he asked, feeling only vaguely intrigued. 'Gardner? Wheeler? Or probably Mutou, since he's the least likely to give up on you in a hurry.'_

_Bakura didn't answer. Another good reason for Kaiba to assume that he was right. sometimes Yugi was just so patiently gullible Kaiba didn't know whether to laugh at him or scorn his naiveté. _

_Kaiba was starting to understand, now, the exact circumstances of Bakura's lack of sanity. That none of it was Bakura's _fault_. At least not in any legal, non-religious way. Not that he didn't cause enough damn trouble for his mere presence here to bug Kaiba mercilessly anyway. _

_Still, Kaiba understood the difference between insanity and sadism, despite how often people tried to group-classify the two. This, along with Yugi's not-so-gentle prodding, was probably the only reason Kaiba hadn't call up to have the boy committed to an asylum somewhere with the highest security the state could offer the moment they landed back in Domino after Battle City. _

'_I… I was wondering, Kaiba. Have _you_ duelled with Yugi today?' Bakura asked, eventually. The company was uneasy enough without an attempt at small talk. _

'_Does it _matter_?' _

'_Ah.' Bakura nodded vaguely in understanding and Kaiba felt his muscles tighten just a little in the shoulder area. He all but willed them to relax before Bakura could notice. 'It's alright, you know,' Bakura said, gently, looking out into the water below them. 'It's just a game, after all. Winning really isn't everything.' _

'_I don't _need_ your support, Bakura.'_

'_Oh… of course not. Only… It's funny really, isn't it?' _

'_Funny?' _

_Bakura shuffled. 'Well Yugi offered _his_ support. To you, I mean. He's offered it a number of times,' he brushed aimlessly at the sand blowing up at them from the beach below. 'You never took him up on it, but… but _I_ would. If I didn't…' he paused, thinking about something he really didn't _need_ to think about. . _

'_If you didn't have to worry about going insane at the next opportunity for bloodshed?' Kaiba asked, and Bakura seemed to shrink a little inside himself. 'It's all _over_ now, Bakura. Don't you _get_ that? Anyone would think you thought you were going to up and kill someone at any given moment.' _

'_But… but that's just it. I still… I wonder, sometimes,' Bakura said, suddenly speaking far too quickly. Almost like that was something he was waiting for Seto to say, just so that he could respond in kind and elaborate on how pathetically true it was. 'I mean, I don't black out unexpectedly or… or vanish for hours and not know where I've been. Not anymore. I don't think. But I still remember him and what he did and… and people think I _don't_.' _

_He gazed at Seto firmly and Seto looked back out of the corner of an eye, strongly considering just calling for the Limo, stuff the ten minutes walk back to the mansion. 'So… it's a little strange. Because even with everything that's happened and everywhere we've been together and everything the spirit did to them… they still all treat me the same way they always did.' _

'_And this is a bad thing… because why?' Seto asked, bluntly. Bakura blinked. _

'_I beg your pardon?' _

'_Oh, can the British manners and civility, Ryou. Lesser__ fools than Yugi and Co would've at least spent the rest of their lives _avoiding_ a person like you, after seeing what you were capable of.' Seto said, evenly. 'And that's only the very _least_ of it. At worst, you could've been committed to the nearest mental institution and left there for the rest of your life. You should count your Lucky Stars, Bakura..' Though God only knew why he still had any. _

'_I see…' Bakura said softly, in a voice that suggested he didn't _really_ understand at all. _

'_You _want_ them as your friends,' Seto said. 'I won't pretend to respect it for a moment, but I also won't pretend to make sense of your cowardice concerning it. It's been three years already. Quit cowering in your own fear already, Ryou, and just _take_ what you want while it's still being offered.'_

'_You would know what I want?' Bakura asked, softly. _

'_Believe it or not, I think I do. You want to start to be the person _you_ want to be instead of just some half crazy fool with a patched up memory. But then, that isn't the person you really _are_, after all.' _

_Bakura stayed quiet for a very long time. No doubt letting Seto's words sink into that far-too-thoughtful head of his. Eventually, though, just as Kaiba was getting ready to leave, Bakura spoke again. _

'_You mean… you mean like _you_ did, Kaiba?' he asked him, without as much as a trace of sarcasm. _

'_You're the one who told me that winning isn't everything, Bakura. Why don't _you_ tell _me_ the answer to that one?' _

_And then Seto Kaiba got to his feet and strode away without giving him the opportunity. _

_

* * *

_**That's****the first bit done, then. Reviews and concrit are both much appreciated. **


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary taken from the title of an Lj-community, _playthedamncard_. YuGiOh and all related characters are copyrighted to Kazuki Takahashi as of 1996 and are not my own. **

**So. This turned out kind of… long, thus I think you should think of it as yet another badly chaptered story, or as a series of one shots working towards a final point. Some bits flow a lot better than others. For now, here's "part one" of the future. **

**Chapter Two.

* * *

'Do you ever get the feeling you're going round in circles?'**

Maybe Yugi was just saying it to break the silence, but somehow he still managed to phrase it like a serious question. He sounded more irritated than actually worried.

'Hm. Frequently.'

'That's what it feels like now.' Yugi continued. 'Like I'm going in circles. I mean literally. Like I'm going round and round and not knowing where I've been and… where I haven't been. I don't know which way is up.'

'Are you talking about the duel or your mental capacity?'

It was a semi-serious insult, but Yugi didn't seem in the mood to respond to it. 'Possibly a little of both. It's your turn.'

Kaiba shrugged and drew a cared from the top of his pile. He'd rehearsed this strategy so many times he felt no need to check it.

'How any more times do we do this, anyway? Not that I don't _enjoy_ it.'

_Until the day I win_, Kaiba said in his thoughts. He didn't need to say it out loud. Yugi sighed. 'Right. Of course. Still not over,' he smiled. 'But… it's better, really. Nicer, you know, without the massive crowds and tournament chaos,' he rubbed his fingers. 'Now if we can just get rid of the arthritis, I think we'd actually be enjoying ourselves. '

A long time ago, Kaiba remembered a boy standing and asking him: "_why do you duel if it's not for fun_?" remembering that now, he felt a smirk creep in about his lips. The mutt never _did_ understand, he realised, what kind of amusement victory could be.

He was still smiling as Yugi flipped over his card and the round began all over again. 'I activate Tribute of the Doomed to raise my power via sacrifice.'

'I knew you were going to do that.'

'Hm.'

* * *

_Seto didn't remember why he was ever _there_ exactly. All he knew was that he was. Maybe he flew Yugi there, but no matter how he tried to later, he couldn't remember using the plane or setting foot in an airport. _

_There were no machines. No constant beeping or respirators of the sort he usually associated with death or hospitals, but somehow that was just making things all the more unsettling. Yugi was sitting cross legged on the bed in front of him, almost like a parody: the twenty-six-year-old pretending to be the fifteen-year-old that Kaiba remembered from a thousand lost duels and bitter moments. In which _this_ girl had always been besides him. _

'_So does this mean I end my turn?' _

'_Something like that, Téa. But we can still keep playing. I mean, you haven't exactly _lost_, yet.' _

'_Hm. No. Not this time, I don't think.' She looked at him smiling. They'd actually only played three moves each, but the match, it seemed, was already over. A waste of her energy, either way. 'Never could get the hang of this game. I always just went for the _cute_ ones. Maybe too often, huh? Maybe I should've tried something different.' she sighed. 'This is a really old board; you know. It's not… is this the same one as…?'_

'_Yeah. Same one,' Yugi smiled. 'I figured you'd remember it. You even played the very same Happy Lover monster in the exact same strategy.'_

'_Don't remember you complaining about that one the first time, Yugi,' Téa said, mysteriously. _

_Yugi gave her a small smile back. 'Hey, who's gonna complain about the cute little monster that saves their life?'_

_Kaiba had no idea what the hell they were talking about, but then again he never did. _

'…_Still, the edges of this one are fraying. You should probably get a new one.'_

'_I _like_ this old one.'_

_It was obviously difficult to play Capsule Monsters on bed covers, anyway. They must've brought her own here from… wherever she lived in this God forsaken city, because there wasn't any sign of the usual, sterilized, antiseptic plastic. The sheets were a gaudy pink and yellow chequered pattern, the kind you got from cheaper stores. All over the bedside and tabletops are scattered belongings. Photo albums, magazines and leaflets from what Kaiba could only assume were nearby theatrical dance acts. No need to worry about infection anymore, or lack of sterility. If anything, they at least make Kaiba forget about the smell of antiseptic which had plagued him ever since he got here. American hospitals used such ridiculously cheap substances, no wonder more people died inside of them than out. _

'_Same old Yugi. You're just like your grandpa. Well…' she smiled wider, eyes tired but still shining and Kaiba was suddenly struck by the knowledge that perhaps they'd _always_ been that way. '…You are in some ways, anyway. Mostly in your taste for games.' _

_But Yugi noticed, didn't he?_

_No sense in wondering about it. There'd never been _that_ much sense between those two that Kaiba could remember and not once in his life had he ever understood them. He should have excused himself and let them get on with it in peace already, but for some reason, he didn't. _

_Yugi took another moment before leaning forwards on the bed and laying a hand down on top of his side's Master Capsule. Kaiba didn't comment., but Téa smiled, with her eyes half closed._

'…_Yugi… you don't have to…'_

'_I know,' he said, and Kaiba stirred a little bit, remembering how Yugi's tendency to surrender to the worse player had actually put some very surprising people above him on the official duelling circuit. He was still _annoyed_ about that incident with Hawkins, actually. _

'_Then you also know that I'll never forgive you if you try and treat me with kiddie gloves,' she murmured. And then she opened her eyes for a second –when did they close?– and looked at him. _

_Only she _wasn't_ looking at him. Kaiba wasn't certain how he knew, but Téa was looking right through Yugi's face and into someone else's and whatever she was seeing she was smiling at it. _

'_Oh,' Téa whispered. '_There_ you are…' _

'…_Téa?' Yugi frowned at her. Actually, he'd been frowning ever since they'd gotten here but he _did_ do a rather convincing artificial smile. Kaiba probably wouldn't have noticed how really fake it was if he hadn't spent so long staring at the boy from the other side of a duelling platform. Learning to read each minor facial movement and every hint of emotion he ever gave off with a dedication that bordered on obsession. _

'_Hm,' she was answering a question but apparently neither Yugi nor Kaiba had heard it. 'I missed you, you know. I guess…' Téa smiled, wider now. 'I guess I was always so silly. Looking for you _everywhere_ and… He was right here in front of me all the while. It wasn't even _you_. But I still _missed_ you. We all did.' She paused and for a few moments things were quiet. _

'_Yugi…?' Téa whispered suddenly, her grip tightening on the smaller man's hand. _

'_I'm right here, Téa.'_

'_Course you are, mop top. You always were.' She blinked, vaguely, rubbing his shoulder with too thin fingers. 'You know… _he's_ here too.' _

_Yugi's eyes widened just a little and Kaiba thought, for a moment, that she was talking to him. But no. Téa was still staring right through the both of them and into some face that neither could see. It figured. The most attention she'd ever given him, Kaiba realised at that moment, was when he'd crushed Yugi all those years ago in Duellist Kingdom. When she asked him the most ridiculous question he'd ever been asked in his life and he couldn't give her an answer… _

'**_What do _you_ have, Seto Kaiba? Tell me. _Tell me_!' _**

'…_Téa?' _

'_You know,' Téa tried to wink but didn't quite manage it. Her eyelids didn't seem to be obeying her commands. 'He's _right_ there, Yugi. Right there inside of you. He just… I think he'd want you to understand that, if you don't already. I think you do. You _always_ understood so much more than you ever let on…' _

_She wasn't talking about Kaiba. Of course she wasn't. He knew exactly who she was referring to but he was quite willing to pass it off as near-death hallucination and leave it all at that. The small, preposterously smug sounding voice in his head (the one which he liked to call _Atem_) was asking him yet more questions about why he was here and what in the name of the Gods he thought he was doing, wasting time in such personal territory. It wasn't as if Téa would acknowledge him as well as Yugi. It wasn't like he even _wanted_ to be there, after all. _

_Instead of attempting to answer it, Kaiba raised one hand to press the white button on the wall besides the bedside, only Yugi reached out a hand to stop him, fingertips brushing against his sleeve. _

_Strange. It felt to Kaiba like that merest brush of the fingers was shoving him backwards with the strength of a wrecking ball. The back of his hand glanced against the wall before he returned it to his pocket. _

_Hardly any sense in calling a nurse now, anyway. _

_The voice in his head was wrong, anyway. As usual. Kaiba knew exactly why he was here, now. And he knew why he didn't just leave at the point when he knew the flat line would have started had the machinery still been present. And why he didn't just turn away, muttering, as Yugi leaned forwards across the sheets to lay his forehead against Téa's, tears falling from too-large eyes onto unhygienic bed sheets._

'_I do see him,' Yugi choked without so much as a thought for dignity. 'Téa… I do.' _

_Téa Gardner was already beyond hearing him. But Kaiba didn't say so.

* * *

_

'Oh-kay, for this turn I think I'll play the Toon Mermaid in defence mode.'

'…My God. You actually _have_ that card in your deck?'

'Hm. I guess that it's a memory thing. That and since they started producing them as workable _without_ Toon World, I couldn't really pass it up.'

Still, Kaiba thought, dryly, you could _tell_ that Pegasus had been running out of ideas, by this point. Reproducing the same old cards with a different, more comical title. Only to be expected of a mind of such age and _limited_ genius, Kaiba supposed. '…And to finish I'll play one card face down on the field and Gamma the Magnet Warrior in defence.'

'Yugi.'

'Hm?'

'I have _not_ developed a twitch.'

'Okay.'

'Be _serious_ for once in your life.'

'What do you mean "for once in my life"? I think you're mixing me up with Joey, Seto. And… no, I think you're right about the twitch.'

'_Thank_ you.'

'…It's probably just the arthritis again.'

Kaiba jerked a little in his chair. Which hurt, as usual. He'd probably never get used to that. 'When the hell did you start taking humour tips from that chump? His sense of humour is about as tactically developed as a rookie Duellist's usage of Monster Resurrection.'

'Heh. I know, but he still says he always knows just how to ruffle your feathers, Kaiba, if you don't mind me saying so…'

'Try not to relish it too much. I liked you better when you were innocent and unyielding. You've been acting like this all day.'

'Like this?' Yugi asked, artlessly.

'_Out of character_. Wisecracking. Being disturbingly _cheery_ for someone with a pacemaker. Actually you're really starting to remind me of…'

'Um… Do us both a favour and don't say it, Seto.'

'Hm. Either way, Yugi, to be totally honest? It's _really_ starting to bore me. You know how much I hate people _boring_ me. Hurry up and play your card, before I decide to take this back to the holographic arena.'

'If you say so.' A brief pause and suddenly the arena really _did_ seem appealing. He missed the holograms. The way the Blue Eyes appeared with its wings and shining surface encumbering everything Kaiba had ever created, and everything he was willing to destroy. 'Go on. It's your move, Seto…'

* * *

**Reviews and concrit are appreciated.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary taken from the title of an Lj-community, _playthedamncard_. YuGiOh and all related characters are copyrighted to Kazuki Takahashi as of 1996 and are not my own. **

**So. This turned out kind of… long, thus I think you should think of it as yet another badly chaptered story, or as a series of one shots working towards a final point. Some bits flow a lot better than others. For now, here's "part three" of the future.

* * *

**

Chapter Three.

_It was frankly unavoidable, really. _

_Seto Kaiba, renowned for his strength of will and control in duels the world over, sat side by side with his greatest rival and aforementioned rival's closest friend, and struggled desperately to keep from twitching. _

'_So then. Kaiba,' Wheeler said, loudly, immediately attracting the attention of everybody in the ball room who wasn't already listening. It was actually the third time he'd said it (in just that _delightfully_ sarcastic tone of voice, too) so far and it didn't look like he was going to stop it any time soon. More was the pity. _

_The room stirred gently, waiting and impatient, which was, Kaiba supposed, only to be expected for a room full of Duel Academy Graduates. He was expecting a minor rumpus to break out over in the Slifer Red Section any second now, just to break up the atmosphere a little, so Joey had better hurry up and get this over with. _

'_Domino Duel Academy Founder Seto Kaiba…' Joey swirled the champagne in the bottom of his wine glass before reaching back for a top up from the waiter. 'Okay. See. I have a _problem_ here. 'Cause there's so many stories I could tell you all about our good host here. Only thing is, I don't think you'd actually _believe_ any of them. Figures, really. _He_ didn't believe a lot of 'em either, not even when they were happening right in front of his nose. You kids all know about bluffing, right? Sure you do.' _

_Joey smiled at the room full of young duellists, fresh from graduation and most of them, by now, at least _slightly_ tipsy. Christ, Kaiba thought, the man was nearly forty years old. Most of these graduates weren't even old enough to have mortgages and yet Kaiba _swore_ that for some ridiculous reason, half the females in the audience just couldn't take their eyes off of Wheeler. He was _revelling_ in it, too. Yugi, for his part, sat there smiling quietly and playing with his cufflinks. _

'_You guys know all about bluffing. Betcha any money it was your very first lesson at this place. It was, wasn't it? I can see the title in the textbook _right_ now: "_How to Stop your Opponent From Knowing You Have a Sucky Hand, Can't Even Duel Properly and Are Already Gonna Lose_".' _

_Someone in the audience noisily voiced their agreement and people started sniggering –the Slifer Red Section. _Again_. Kaiba would probably have given Yukai a detention, if he weren't here –against all odds– as a graduate and no longer actually a pupil. Darn it. _

'_Yeah, I figured. Thanks kid. I like ya. But anyway Kaiba here is the bluffer of the _century_. I mean he _has_ to be. Just look at all the times he lost to the guy sitting here on my right…. _C'mon_, now, Yuge, don't hide behind the table again. Let the audience see your cute lil' Kaiba-crushing face, right there.' _

_More laughing. Kaiba resolved to take Yugi outside and kill him for organizing things this way once the party was over. _Joey Wheeler_! Giving an _Academy Graduation Speech_! For the love of God why did Seto ever agree to such a stupid—_

'_See, I guess that none of you guys ever _really_ learned just how easy Kaiba was to pound in the old days. Hell, even I did it… sorta. Nearly. Once.' He coughed around his champagne glass and Kaiba was far too stubborn to sink any deeper into his chair. 'He got a little lucky towards the end, though.' _

'_In your _dreams_, Wheeler,' Kaiba muttered under his breath. _

_Joey rolled his eyes. 'Whatever, man. Be nice, now, this is your kids' party after all.' _

_Kaiba started to think that he should've had the entire Slifer Red section gagged and bound before they entered. In fact, Obelisk Blue was starting to bug him a little as well. They just wouldn't stop _laughing

'_Seriously man, I tell ya they once considered using this guy as his own Lab Rat for the testing of those freaky hologramic—'_

'Holographic_, Joe,' Yugi corrected. _

_Okay, there was _definitely_ far too much alcohol circulating in this end of the room. 'Yeah, thanks Yuge. _Holographic_ systems. They were just new when we started out, you know. Nobody had ever seen _anything_ like a Duel Disk and I _swear_ Kaiba here used to test those damn things on himself. _With_ the safety disengaged and everything.' He paused for a second, checking his wine glass before realising it was empty. He shrugged and placed the glass down on the table. 'I guess it figures. Safer that way. The scientists probably became less attached to him than they did to the real rats.' _

_Oh, for the love of God, people were laughing again. _

'_Though, I guess I'm not here to diss him _too_ badly… Yugi'd never forgive me for that. To tell you the truth, I kinda showed up only-half-invited tonight. Really nice of your main man to gimme a speech spot, don'tcha think? Just goes to show you all how much of an influence we had on the guy.' _

…_Definitely going to kill Yugi. _After_ he'd finished with Wheeler. And dumped the body far outside the city. _

'_And we _did_ have an affect on the guy,' Joey added. He was speaking a little quieter this time. Must've been the effects of the alcohol kicking in, Kaiba thought. Still, anything which talked Wheeler into sitting the hell down and shutting his trap couldn't be a bad thing. _

_Then someone in the audience – oh, not _them_ again– decided that it was a good time to start asking questions: _

'_Tell us about the first _Battle City_ Tournament, Mister Wheeler!' _

_Oh._

'Oh don't you even _think_ about it, mutt_.' Kaiba felt his hands grip the bench ever so slightly tighter and started glancing at Yugi from around the unopened wine bottles. Yugi, for his part, remained blissfully quiet. Listening. _

'_What, you mean the second time we kicked Kaiba's ass in his own tournament? Or was it the _third_ time?' Joey made a pretence of thoughtfully scratching his nose. 'Kinda hard to remember, I mean it did happen an awful lot. Amazing really, that this guy would go on to host and run like the biggest duelling academy in all of Domino… Well, actually the _only_ Duelling Academy in all of Domino, but hey, who's keeping count, eh?' He gave Kaiba a rather unexpected thump across the shoulder. The laughs this time were interspersed with sniggers and comments Kaiba couldn't help but be glad he wasn't close enough to hear. _

_Yugi was going to suffer for this one.

* * *

_

'You realise, of course, that you're only setting yourself up for more suffering?' Kaiba was smiling vaguely at the board laid out before them. He counted three magicians, two knights and a couple of decent sized dragons and toy-monsters in Yugi's graveyard at this point and unless Yugi had done anything particularly revolutionary with his deck some time in the last twenty years (which wasn't likely), Kaiba couldn't see him pulling out anything more powerful.

'Perhaps. But then again, it's only a game, right?'

The words tugged on Kaiba's memory in a way which was ever so slightly uncomfortable, but he shook that thought away and didn't allow it to distract him. He snorted.

'You've been getting complacent in your duelling skills, Yugi. I _might_ even say that you're slipping.'

'We'll see, Kaiba,' Yugi said, quietly. It was a bluff. Kaiba knew it, because he'd seen that face too often not to. But… it made him wonder, all the same.

* * *

_Kaiba had just reached the part of his own speech where, for some inexplicable reason; he had decided to bring up his little stint at the Duellist Kingdom Tournament, when he started to wonder just why in the hell everyone was still laughing. Honestly, Wheeler had sat down ten minutes ago. Was he now trying to entertain himself and everyone in the room by pulling weird faces behind Kaiba's back, or something?_

_But… no. Joey, (as crazy as it sounded), was still sitting perfectly calmly in the chair besides Yugi. actually he seemed to be the only one in the room who _wasn't_ cracking up. Well, him and Mokuba, who was also sitting there with a disturbingly serene smile on his face which Kaiba had never quite seen on him before. He'd ask about it, except that he was _supposed_ to be in the middle of giving a speech. _

_What exactly was so _amusing_, anyway? It was _true_, after all. Joey really _wouldn't_ have stood a chance against Mokuba in a duelling ring, even if he had the entire contingency of Level-Up Metal Armour Dragons, The Blue Eyes, Red Eyes, Dark Magician _and_ the Sugar Plum Fairy –the real one, that was, not the Duel Monster Card– in his deck. _

_It was _true_. He said as much out loud. _

_And yet people were _still_ laughing. Yugi especially. There were tears all but running down the man's cheeks, he was laughing so damn hard and Kaiba was finding this whole thing _very_ undignified. There wasn't time to think about it, though, because now Mokuba gave his older brother a reminding wink and pointed down at the banquet room floor. Not that Kaiba needed reminding. _

_He had, after all, been waiting for just this moment. _

'_Well... since you're all apparently nice and warmed u,' he said, eventually once the simmering laughter had died down a touch. 'I'd say it's about time you got to see a little of what you're all actually here _graduating_ for, so you can tell exactly what you're all in for when you get out of this building. Wouldn't you all agree?' _

_Yugi stopped laughing. Strange but in all his years of reading the man's movements, Kaiba had never truly considered just how extensively Yugi had also been reading his. It was an oversight that annoyed him something terrible, but in this instance, it proved to be more amusing than anything else. Because from the look on Yugi Mutou's face the moment Kaiba said the words "wouldn't you all agree?" and glanced ever so slightly in his rival's direction, Yugi had known exactly what Kaiba had in store for them. _

_That was when –on a precisely timed cue courtesy of Mokuba– the room had started shaking. _

_Yugi's eyes were widening in his skull in revelation that his assumption had apparently been right. A few of the more nervous graduates had shrieked a little and scattered back across the room. It wasn't every day, after all, that a Duel Arena opened directly under your feet and sent your classmates scattering._

_Kaiba hadn't spared much expense on the thing. It was created according to the old fashioned standards, tall walls and raised platforms. But the system still operated purely on the new edition duel disks. It was merely harking back to outdated classics and Kaiba had made is specifically to look like something out of Duellist Kingdom. _

_After all, how much more appropriate could you get for a man's crushing defeat than to duel at the site of his very first one?_

_Kaiba looked from Yugi's face, to Mokuba's, to Joey's and couldn't keep himself from smirking, not that he would wish to. 'A rematch is in order, I believe. For a little event at a place called Battle City. Not that I lost, that is. As a matter of fact I didn't.' _

_Kaiba turned around to face Yugi…_

…_And then kept _right_ on turning until it was Joey Wheeler settled in his line of vision. 'This has been hanging over my head for far too long, Wheeler, and I think now's as good a time as any to see it through to the finish, don't you?' _

_Joey Wheeler's face slowly moved from the Arena, to Kaiba, then back to the arena again. 'I… whoa. Hang on. Wait a second, Kaiba, what the hell is this?'_

_Mokuba grinned. Yugi blinked his too large eyes. 'Looks um…it looks like its duelling podium, Joey.' _

'_Damn it, Yuge, I can _see_ that already.' _

'_Well since you had so many wonderful stories,' Kaiba said, with a dry smile. 'I'm quite certain you won't mind giving them all something new to tell their grandchildren. Like how about your _second_ punishing defeat at the hands of your _good host_ Seto Kaiba. What do you say, Wheeler? Why don't we have some fun?'_

_The banquet hall-turned-duelling arena had started buzzing, an excited, hopefully hiss that ran the length of the room and back again. Graduates stared up at them from every side and Kaiba knew that Wheeler was too much of a stage actor to ever turn down from such a fight. _

'…_Aw, man, you've gotta be _kidding_ me.' _

_He should have known by now, of course, that Kaiba never joked. _

_

* * *

_**Reviews and concrit are much appreciated. **


	4. Chapter 4

Play the Damn Card. 

…We're not getting any younger, you knowTwo opponents regard each other as they have a million times before. Only this time the outcome is going to be different. Seto vs. Yugi in the last Duel of their lives. Future-fic.

**Summary taken from the title of an Lj-community, _playthedamncard_. YuGiOh and all related characters are copyrighted to Kazuki Takahashi as of 1996 and are not my own. **

**So. This turned out kind of… long, thus I think you should think of it as yet another badly chaptered story, or as a series of one shots working towards a final point. Some bits flow a lot better than others. For now, here's "part four" of the future. **

Chapter Four. 

There was a Catapult Turtle and a Marshmallon currently standing between Seto Kaiba and a direct shot at Yugi Mouto's life points.

Kaiba was really starting to hate that fuzzy lump of mallow that Pegasus had the nerve to call a Duel Monster. He was also getting a little tired of working out the mathematics in his head, but then by doing that, there was also always the advantage of the fact that the electronic counters on Duel Disks couldn't drop lower than zero. Beating your opponent was one thing, taking their life points all into the negative was quite something else. Something that many duellists tended to take pleasure in and which a few of the more unofficial tournaments tended to utilise as a way of deciding the winner in an otherwise draw.

The mathematics here, however, regardless of how you worked them out, were not in Seto Kaiba's favour. Not with his Ultimate Dragon disintegrated, his Shining Dragon in the graveyard and God Only Knew what Yugi had done with the Gods. Kaiba had a suspicion that they weren't actually even in his deck. If they had been then Yugi surely would have played one, by now.

Instead, Kaiba lay the Head of Exodia (another victim of mass-reproduction in the last five years or so) face down on the field and waits patiently for Yugi to analyse the strategy.

'You know they say that with old age, speed of thinking is the first thing to go, Yugi.'

'Kaiba, surely you must realise that you're _older_ than me.'

'By mere months.'

'Hm. But that could make all the difference here.'

'Speaking of which, how's the mutt?'

'Complaining about having to use the wheelchair.'

'Thought he might. Idiot.'

Yugi calmly drew a card in advance of his next turn. 'Valerie can't get any peace, she says. He keeps on trying to coach the kids on the street and always ends up nearly killing himself on their duel disks.'

'It doesn't surprise me; he never could operate the damn things properly in the first place. Remind me not to let you mention him again, just thinking of him is a pointless distraction.'

'You're the one who brought him up.' The tone was reproachful in only the mildest of senses. Even in later, more cynical years, Yugi had never been one for accusations.

'Well try telling him I'll pay him million yen if he can stay in the thing for three days without attempting to negotiate anywhere without it.'

'…That's very generous of you.'

'Only because I know the fool's too stubborn to ever manage it.'

'I'll be sure to let him know.'

'Appreciated.'

* * *

'_A wise man once said that all genius contains a hint of determination that most people like to pass off as sheer madness,' Kaiba was smiling as he stood quite firm and unmoving on the corner of the arena. Joey, for his part, remained ridiculously agape. 'If you have a problem with that kind of thing, Joey, I certainly didn't see it in you the _last_ time you visited virtual reality.'_

'_No, not that!' Joey blurted out. 'I mean you're crazy for doin' this to the _room_! Are you trying to tell me you organized this whole freaking banquet and spent a whole tonne of cash on building a duel arena right beneath the freaking _floorboards_? Here?! Seriously, why we couldn't have just taken this outside?' He looked around the room, waving his arms in melodrama. 'Man, this is it, folks! A testament to your great leader's total lack of sanity!'_

'_Big words from a small puppy,' Kaiba waved a hand dismissively, pulling out a new edition duel disk which had been oh-so-carefully hidden beneath the folds of the tablecloth. _

_Joey twitched vaguely. And then...then he started grinning. 'Oh, you're asking for it already man. Bring it!' _

_The room started cheering. Particularly Slifer Red. And Seto realised that Yugi had started laughing again, a loud, contented, excited laugh that Kaiba had completely forgotten the boy –no., _man_– was capable of. Kaiba felt his lips twitching just a little. _

'_Then let's duel.'

* * *

_

Kaiba had decided long ago that he had no love whatsoever for the Marshmallon card. From the looks of Yugi's side of the field right now, that growing dislike wasn't going to be negated any time soon.

'Just turn over the card already, Mutou. Get on with this whole charade already.

Yugi didn't move.

Kaiba started shifting. Which hurt, damn it, because his back really didn't want to move the way he was forcing it to. Still, be damned if he was going to be told what to do by his stupid body. Impatient, he reached out in Yugi's direction, brandishing a hand with all the strength he could muster. 'Oh come on already, Mutou, are you going to make a move or… he paused. Cutting off mid sentence when Yugi refused to look up at him. '…Yugi?'

'The Dark Magician,' Yugi muttered, vaguely.

'What? You played that one five turns ago, last I checked it was in your graveyard.'

'Yeah, I know,' Yugi went on, still staring vaguely at the cards that were in his hand which Kaiba felt the familiar itching urge to see. 'You got him with that X-Head Cannon when I wasn't expecting it. I just wish he _wasn't_, that's all.'

Kaiba raised an eyebrow. Surely he wasn't going to start blathering about the heart of the Cards again, for god's sakes, not _now. _'…Uhuh. And the reason for this would be…?'

Yugi looked up and lowered his hand.

In his hand Yugi held the Feral Imp (a junk card, of course, and pretty much designed to be destroyed) and Polymerisation (about as much use as nothing without anything to merge). There are two trap cards out on the field but whatever they were Yugi obviously couldn't play them or else he would've done so by now. His remaining deck-stack lay empty besides him.

The layout of his side of the field was all but perfect, and yet he couldn't carry it through. The strategy had too many holes in it, too many errors that no one but Kaiba would pick up on.

The Dark Magician _might_ have helped him out, in that exact situation, but probably not.

Yugi couldn't win. There was nothing more that he could do, and if it weren't already being operated by the best pacemaker money had to offer, Seto Kaiba swore that his heart would probably have betrayed him completely right at that moment.

'…_Is it over?'_

'**_So tell me, Seto Kaiba, what do you have now?' _**

Yugi leaned back in the chair almost seeming to relish the moment. Which was ridiculous, of course, because there was no way in hell that anyone could ever relish defeat at the hands of another.

Except that Yugi was never very much like anyone else, now, was he?

'Well I guess that's it,' Yugi said, evenly, before he started to rise from the table. 'Poor old feral imp here, just can't pull it through without that other card. Shame. Would've been a good move, too, if I'd been able to pull it off, don't you think?'

Seto didn't look at him.

The reality of the situation was sinking in around him. He knew that _this_… this organized set of cards lain out before them, was not a result of luck or chance. It never had been. This was a victory, pure and simple. Kaiba had never expected anything less from himself. Not in all his sixty years of duelling had he ever imagined that this moment wouldn't come. So obviously, he wasn't the least bit surprised that it happened to come… now. In an offhand duel with just cards on a tabletop and the setting sun of the Domino Evening.

Not in the least.

'…_I win, Yugi.' _

'Yes,' Yugi smiled, almost as if he'd heard the words that Kaiba knows for certain he didn't speak aloud. 'Congratulations, Seto. You win.'

Yugi Mutou reached a hand across the table, fingers openly defying his own arthritis.

And without so much as a thought for modesty, or grand staging, or laughter, or the self-righteous enjoyment of a long awaited victory, Seto Kaiba took it.

* * *

**No, we're not done yet. Review and concrit are appreciated.**


	5. Chapter 5

Play the Damn Card. 

**Summary taken from the title of an Lj-community, _playthedamncard_. YuGiOh and all related characters are copyrighted to Kazuki Takahashi as of 1996 and are not my own. **

**So. This turned out kind of… long, thus I think you should think of it as yet another badly chaptered story, or as a series of one shots working towards a final point. But you probably realise that by now...

* * *

**

Chapter Five. 

_For the rest of his days well into eternity, Seto Kaiba would continue to swear that he was going easy on the mutt. _

_Joey was never going to believe that. Most likely neither would his graduates, but for the first time in his life Kaiba didn't honestly give a damn about it. _

_A draw. _

_It was probably the best that Joey Wheeler was ever going to accomplish against _him_. The mutt seemed happy with it, anyway, but that was alright. _

_It had been so much like how things used to be, Yugi had told him later as Kaiba's driver was giving him a lift to his apartment. Back in the days with Téa, and Tristan and all those other strange oddballs that Yugi had the inclination to call his friends. He said that Téa would've loved to see them duel today. He tried his hardest not to sound sad as he said so. _

_Kaiba tells him to say goodnight to Rebecca for him, when she got back from her meeting on the other side of town_

_Yugi promised that he would do so. _

_Wheeler barged past and into the limo, grinning like a fool and giving Kaiba a very much unwanted thump on the back, having apparently just come from signing autographs for at least thirty different graduates of Kaiba's own academy (another thing he'd never live down). _

_And then the door of the vehicle closes and drives off into the distance. _

_A voice was whispering in Kaiba's ear sounding very much like a girl he rarely thought of while alive, and thought of even less now that she was no longer amongst them. _

'**What do you have, Seto Kaiba?' **

_He was still uncertain what to tell her. But for now, however, he was happy to leave the question unanswered.

* * *

_

The phone was ringing. Again. It had barely been on the hook all morning but then again, this was nothing unusual for a Saturday.

'These spreadsheets aren't going to organize themselves, Mokuba. If you're going to be here, make yourself useful.'

Mokuba's head appeared round the door at the sound of the yelling. 'You call me a secretary, or something, big brother? The phones right there on the desk besides you.'

'I repeat: spreadsheets,' Kaiba muttered, shifting between one for and the other and actually having no idea where the hell a substantial part of their budget had gotten to. 'Answer it.'

Fifty years had gone, and yet in the Household of Kaiba there was but a single person who could get away with anything. His name was Mokuba Kaiba. Mokuba Kaiba, who had been there to drag his brother in and out of death defying scenarios ever since their childhood. Mokuba who had trod upon the oh-so-murky waters of Seto's conscience and come out, somewhat ruffled, but mostly unscathed. A forgiver. A brother. A damn good chess player. His family.

Still, there was a saying Seto had heard once (which actually sounded very much like something that would come out of that idiot Taylor's mouth: "_I will follow you all the way to the shadows and back, but I _will not_ answer the phone for you_." Such was now apparently the case.

'Mokuba, I'm kind of _busy_ here. That phone isn't going to stop.'

'Not hearing the magic word, Seto.'

'Alright. Will you answer the phone _now_?'

Mokuba gave him a long, dry stare, tinted with the slightest of smiles. The smile which said "I know you can't help being this way, so don't worry. I won't take it personally." Then Mokuba shrugged and yielded to his new found duty. 'I thought you hired an actual secretary, anyway?'

'I did, but he has the day off. Visiting relatives, or something.'

'Wow. You're getting generous in your old age, aren't you?' Mokuba smiled at him, slyly in way that deftly reminded Kaiba of the impish –and somewhat naïve, if remarkably intelligent– ten year old he used to be. That he'd never really _stopped_ being, to Seto Kaiba, come to think of it.

'Maybe I just wanted him to stop hanging around and asking strange questions for once,' Seto muttered, suggestively. 'Are you actually going to go _home _any time soon?'

Mokuba messed with his glasses – an old habit which seemed to drive Seto crazier than anyone else. What was with everyone he knew _refusing_ perfectly good and reasonably priced eye correction laser treatment these days, anyway? 'I would, but last I checked she was chucking me out of the door again and telling me to stay away until she fixed the mess in the kitchen. I also think she's getting a little tired of all the phone calls I keep answering in the middle of the night, most of which are people who are really looking for _you_, I should point out. Just like on our wedding night,' he added, wryly.

Kaiba grunted. 'I swear she'll never let go of that one…'

'And I swear you'd never _let_ her, Seto, even if you wanted to _try_. But fine, I'll get it.'

The phone stopped ringing for a few blissful seconds and Kaiba went back to his worksheets and ignored what Mokuba was saying. Utilising the only talent he considered greater than his duelling prowess –the ability to block out the sound of absolutely anything.

Too much inflation, he told himself for the umpteenth time that month. Duel Monster cards having left the main market over twenty years ago and the apparent need for holographic security devices around the world going up in a similar pattern meant that Kaiba's corporations business partners had been skipping in and out of deals like flies around a honey pot for the last decade or so. Kaiba was strongly considering cutting it all back and just up and selling to the highest bidder.

Which obviously he'd never do even if someone tried to torture him into it, but… still, there were days.

The phone was returned gently to the hook.

'…Seto?'

…There were _definitely_ days. Kaiba stopped struggling with the budget for a second and turned his attention to another lump of documents, twice the size of the first. Mokuba, however, remained persistent. 'I… Seto, that was Joey Wheeler on the phone just now.'

Kaiba still didn't look up from the work laid out before him. So Wheeler was calling the mansion. Big deal. This was a reason to distract him from his documents because…?

Mokuba swallowed. 'He's uh… he's calling from the Emergency Ward at Domino hospital.'

'Wheelchair again?' Seto sighed, wearily. If he'd told the idiot not to try and navigate Prowler's Street and all the old haunts without that thing once, he'd told him a thousand times.

'No, Seto,' Mokuba's tone was almost disturbing. 'Definitely not the wheelchair. It's… it's not for _him_.'

Kaiba looked up, his spreadsheets forgotten.

He knew he didn't have to ask, and Mokuba didn't have to tell him. '…Yugi.'

'Should… should I tell them to get the limo?'

'That… would probably be an idea,' Kaiba started saying, but Mokuba was already vanishing up the corridor with a speed Kaiba hadn't seen his younger brother use since he was thirty-five years old.

* * *

**Reviews and concrit are appreciated. **


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary taken from the title of an Lj-community, _playthedamncard_. YuGiOh and all related characters are copyrighted to Kazuki Takahashi as of 1996 and are not my own. **

* * *

_"I just want to thank you, thank you from the bottom of my heart for all the sleepless_ _nights and for tearing me apart."_

- Pink, "_A Long Way to Happy_" Lyrics.

Chapter Six.

_He kept on thinking about Yugi's speech for a long time after it was over. _

_When the moment had come for it, they hadn't actually bothered to lower the arena. Yugi just climbed right up onto it and stood there with his glass held out and a smile on his face. By this point Seto had decided that the very small quantity of alcohol he'd already had was probably getting to him. Just how the mutt had managed to achieve a _draw_ when he was _already_ completely-intoxicated was beyond Kaiba but given the circumstances, he had decided complaining would just be a waste of energy. _

_So Yugi stood up to do his speech, and Kaiba watched, and waited. He was... preoccupied.

* * *

_

They arrived too late by about forty-five minutes and yet somehow; they were still the first people there, asides from Wheeler.

Out of the chair again, Kaiba noted. And yelling at anyone and everything within distance. The hand of a younger woman (what was her name again… Valerie?) Gripped in his the whole time round, with no respect for the thirty-five year olds need to be separate.

Or maybe she really _had_ no need. She clung onto her father's jacket constantly, Kaiba noticed, as if ready to catch him and drag him back to the wheelchair at the very first signs of a stumble. Her purple eyes were tired and frightened. Familiar, really, in the sense that they so much echoed Mokuba's after a fifteen hour day at the office. But still she refused to let go.

Just like her father, really. Though perhaps not quite as ridiculous.

For the thirteenth time she asked him to leave. A logical recourse, really. After all, there was no reason for any of them to be here any longer unless one of them was willing to sign for the body and…

And Kaiba was fairly certain that he wasn't going to be the one to do that. Mokuba, however, probably would if Wheeler didn't get a fucking grip on himself and settle down already. As if ranting and raving like this would change anything.

Kaiba ignored the smell of antiseptic, because it was just too stark and reminiscent. It reminded him of too many hospitals and too many trips. One in particular. So he focussed his eyes on the walls instead, black and white tile following black and while tile which he stared at firmly until their images begin to blur into golden blocks of stone and sand and…

…No. That wasn't right.

There shouldn't be sand in here.

Kaiba had tried for so long to avoid it and yet now, it seemed as if he were right there again. As if the hospital was just a dream and he was really sitting in the dunes of a distant land across the oceans. He was sitting… no, not _sitting_, he realised: standing. Walking. Walking beneath the desert sun as a second figure walked besides him. And then the figure stepped forwards and walked away ahead of him, shining with gold as he vanished through the door of hospital intensive care room one-oh-three where the constant whir of a flat line had not sounded in over half an hour. Seto can still _hear_ it, though. Somehow.

The figure in the doorway paused and stepped back to smile at him. A familiar, arrogant, self-ascertained smile that Kaiba had not seen for fifty years.

In that instant it seemed like everything was happening at once.

It was an out of body experience; probably. Kaiba had never denied the possibility of them occurring, particularly in moments of high emotive tension. He'd often thought that Yugi Mutou's entire friendship circle had been based on just such ridiculous self-delusions. Only now he was actually _experiencing_ one for himself and…

And he didn't feel so certain any longer.

For in that very moment, sitting in a hospital waiting room, Seto Kaiba's entire life was laid out before him in the sand in one, single instant, its form shaped like a golden star. A flash of blue. Virtual systems fighting and battling in overdone arenas, performing to packed out crowds. A girl with white hair that he didn't remember. A dragon. A ring of hands that he'd never been a part of and never wanted…

'_Not_ real_…'_

Then the images moved faster, and he remembered more. The skin of a dragon glaring and ripping in the evening sun. an ocean and a helicopter and a cold, dark prison, as deep as hell itself. A glaring, golden eye staring at him firmly, while a girl with brown hair asked him in a loud and angry voice exactly what he'd gained from it.

And right in the middle of it all, as much as he resented it, and as much as he had spent the last fifty years trying to shake them away, were two bright pairs of violet eyes, shining in a single young and smiling face.

And then the pharaoh vanished. The world became real and tangible again. The pain of old joints came back and along with it, another pain which it took a while for him to recognize as something other than just a fault in his pacemaker. Right in his heart. Joey Wheeler had finally collapsed into the plastic chair besides him, clutching his daughter tightly in both arms. A doctor bowed and walked away into a nearby corridor.

Kaiba didn't try to shake the memories away any longer as a bitter, painful, exasperating thought tugged at the corner of his consciousness, making him frown and smile in the very same instant.

Maybe it was better late than never.

* * *

'_It's not his fault, really,' Yugi looked up mid sentence and Kaiba was starting to see exactly why he'd been limiting his alcohol intake. Yugi was still short. Obviously. So his natural tolerance was probably a great deal lower than most. As it happened then, Yugi and Kaiba were the only people in the room not intoxicated to a level at which none of this would matter tomorrow morning. Whatever Yugi said right now, Kaiba realised, nobody would think on it too much. _

_Which somehow still didn't feel like much of a comfort. 'It's just… the way he is. It's the way a _lot_ of people are, really. It's confident, and individual, but sometimes it can go too far and then you forget a lot of the other important stuff… A long time ago, he told me that the world gives you a single chip and that that's what you use to play the game of living…' _

_The exact circumstances under which that phrase was spoken had either been forgotten, or else Yugi didn't wish to invoke them. 'You play it because it's all you can do. Maybe, if you're lucky, you'll play the game well. We're all so different,' he smiled vaguely into his glass. 'All of us. Different lives, different backgrounds, different ideas of how the game is supposed to be played… But we all play it, in the end, don't we? Sometimes, if we're really lucky, we might even win it. We might even find out what winning really _means_. I hope you all get the chance to do that. I really do' _

_Yugi looked at Kaiba firmly. _Also_ not much of a comfort, but Kaiba kept looking all the same._

_And that was how they stayed. For what felt like hours, when it was probably actually little more than a second, before Yugi looked up from his glass at the sound of clapping. _

_Somebody was standing up in the audience and if Kaiba had looked closely, he would have seen sooner that it was Yukai. And then Rhodes. Then Joey. And then following her seemed to be every other name of every other member of the academy. A ballroom-turned-arena full of students, all standing and raising empty drinks to the sky in a carphony of clinking, shining glass. The drumming echo of clapping._

_It took a while before things died down for Yugi to get another word in, and all that time, Kaiba continued to gaze in Yugi's direction. _

_Yugi's gaze was suddenly familiar. Rather like the same look Seto once saw many years ago, gazing at him firmly from inside a Pharaoh's tomb. A voice whispered in his head for the millionth time, asking him quietly: what did he have? _

'What do I _have_, girl? Hm. Wouldn't _you_ like to know…'

_Yugi Mutou wasn't laughing any longer but he was still smiling. Grinning, in fact, as he looked around the room and finally finished his speech. 'I guess… I guess we all have one thing in common, don't we?' He said, softly, in a voice Kaiba figured only half the room could hear, if even that many. 'Can't believe I forgot about that. Silly really, given why we're all here…_

'…_We're Duellists.'

* * *

_

"**_Now I say again: Two remain. But, of course, they're a part of you now. "_**

_**- Battle Royale. **_

**Fin.

* * *

**

**Reviews and concrit are appreciated. Thanks for reading. **


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